Oberhauser’s Bully Pulpit Antics

Thread #46 My wife posted this on FACTNet over a year ago in responce to a post that I had written about the Oberhausers. It is relivent to the previous thread as it also relates to the Oberhauser family.

My wife wrote...

My husband Jeff is way too nice Bro. Oberhauser, I agree that you owe your wife an apology. (Bear with me as I give more details)

HERE’S THE REST OF THE STORY. The beggars were a man, two women and a baby. Church was over and everyone was outside. While Sis. Oberhauser was inside the church with the young woman, the man and the older woman were out sitting in the car joking and laughing. Bro. Oberhauser, my family and everyone else standing outside saw this plainly. My family was already in our van getting ready to drive away. Sis. Oberhauser got the van keys and started heading for their van. At that point, my husband beckoned for Bro. Oberhauser who came over and explained that he was not going to give the people money, but was sending his wife to follow them to the gas station to pay for $5 in gas. (WHAT?) My husband at that point said he did not like this situation and told Bro. Oberhauser that we would follow his wife if it was okay with him. Bro. Oberhauser stayed back at the church.

Once at the station, Sis. Oberhauser seemingly was about to pull up beside the beggars at the pump and Jeff quickly motioned for her to park directly in front of the store. We pulled up beside her and he either vocally or through hand gestures told her to just go on inside and pay for the gas. When she came out, Jeff told her (and I can’t remember his exact words) that she just needed to leave at this point.

One Week Later. I went to the Sunday night service alone because my husband was staying home with our son. Bro. Oberhauser was standing outside and stopped me before I walked in by saying something like “You can just get on down the road now”. I looked at him puzzled and asked him what did he say. He repeated similarly “You can just go on and hit the road now”. At my second puzzled expression he began to explain that those words or something similar had been spoken by Jeff to his wife. He asked me if I remember Jeff saying those things. I told him I didn’t remember exactly what Jeff had said to Sis. Oberhauser and that he needed to ask Jeff. Bro. Oberhauser then went on to tell me (in a very clipped tone) that he didn’t talk to his wife like that and don’t allow others to speak to her in that manner. He asked if Jeff talks to me that way. He indicated that perhaps the change he was noticing in me was due to problems with my husband. He asked if Jeff was abusive, etc. I answered no and that any changes he might perceive had nothing to do with my family life. He called his wife over, who was talking to someone in the parking lot, to verify what he was saying. Bro. Oberhauser then told me that he would talk to Jeff about this face to face and did not want me to mention it to him. I foolishly agreed to do that. To Jeff: I apologize.

Well Bro. Oberhauser, I kept my word but you didn’t. I waited everyday for Jeff to say something about your promised face-to-face discussion, but it didn’t happen. About two weeks later, Jeff got his face-to-face discussion in a Sunday Morning sermon. Imagine that! As I sat there listening to Oberhauser go on and on about how you should talk to people and not offending people with your words, I never saw any alarm register on my husband’s face. On the way home, I asked my husband if Oberhauser had talked to him about the above mentioned situation. He said no. I then told Jeff about my conversation with the Oberhausers and that I felt this morning’s “introductory message” was for him.

To date, Bro. Oberhauser has yet to “defend his wife’s honor”. Firstly Bro. Oberhauser, you owe your wife an apology for sending her into that situation alone. A policeman friend and brother here in the city can give you countless situations of good Samaritans being victimized all the time by scam artists. The handful (literally) of people standing outside of the church was more important to you than the safety of your wife. Where were your priorities? Can you spell
B-A-D J-U-D-G-M-E-N-T ?

Secondly, you made my husband the ogre in the whole situation. He was only trying look out for YOUR WIFE, something you failed to do. So what if he spoke with urgency to her during a time when a seemingly innocent situation could turn bad in a moment. Then to add insult to injury, you nailed him from the pulpit. Maybe you had taken the time to see your fault in the matter and wanted to avoid having Jeff enlighten you on your bad judgment. Who knows?

Thirdly, you confronted me when I was alone about a displeasure you had with my husband. You vented your anger towards Jeff to me. You attempted to villainize Jeff in our marital relationship under the disguise of giving me pastoral counseling. If that wasn’t enough, you requested that I betray my husband and not tell him about any of it because you wanted to talk to him “face to face”. As I said before, I foolishly agreed to that. Maybe I was so uncomfortable at that point, I would agree to anything to end the conversation. Nevertheless, I was wrong. Bro. Oberhauser you pitted me against my husband at that point and THAT WAS WRONG!

Admitting wrong when it’s plainly before your face is a bit much for many NTCC ministers. How truly sad it is. And that’s the rest of the story. Good day. (ph)

Mrs Collins